38 Successful People On How They’ve Professionally Failed

Gallery38 Slides

So, you failed. You royally effed something up to such a degree, you’re now simultaneously filling out legal forms to change you name and price-comparing flights to Caribbean islands you can’t pronounce. Take a deep breath, close those Internet tabs, and draw some inspiration from these very rich, very successful people who, like you, have had the shit kicked out of them by the universe at some point.

Walt Disney

“I think it’s important to have a good hard failure when you're young. I learned a lot out of that. Because it makes you kind of aware of what can happen to you. Once you’ve lived through the worst, you’re never quite as vulnerable afterward."

"You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you.”

(C) 2010 The Denver Post, MediaNews Group

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Stan Smith (Turned down as a ballboy at age 17)

“When you walk on a court, clear your mind of everything unrelated to the goal of playing the match as well as you can."

2014 Getty Images

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Michael Bloomberg

“The next day after I got fired, literally the next day, I started a new company. Life is too short to spend your time avoiding failure.”

2015 NBCUniversal Media, LLC

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“I recommend that you all get fired; it’s a great learning experience.”

2015 Getty Images

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Serena Williams

“Throughout years and years, slow and steady wins the race. Is greatness winning? Is it losing? Is it recovery? It's all of them, plus being good to yourself. I don't have regrets. I don't live in the past. I live in the present and learn not to make the same mistakes in the future."

2009 Getty Images

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Coco Chanel

"Success is often achieved by those who don't know that failure is inevitable."

2010 NBAE

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Kobe Bryant (Six words: The Utah Jazz his rookie year.)

"I've failed before, and I woke up the next morning, and I'm OK. People say bad things about you in the paper on Monday, and then on Wednesday, you're the greatest thing since sliced bread. I've seen that cycle, so why would I be nervous about it happening?"

Robin Platzer

8/38

Oprah Winfrey

"Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it.”

"At some point, you are bound to stumble. If you’re constantly pushing yourself higher and higher, the law of averages predicts that you will at some point fall. And when you do, I want you to remember this: There is no such thing as failure. Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction. Now, when you’re down there in the hole, it looks like failure. When that moment comes, it’s okay to feel bad for a little while. Give yourself time to mourn what you think you may have lost. But then, here’s the key: Learn from every mistake, because every experience, particularly your mistakes, are there to teach you and force you into being more who you are.”

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Jerry Seinfeld (Forgot all his jokes on his first night of stand-up)

"I would say the advice I would give myself, or any young person, would be, 'Keep your head up in failure, and your head down in success.'"

1981 Harry Langdon

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Truman Capote

“Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.”

2007 Getty Images

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Steve Jobs

"I didn't see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life."

Michael Gottschalk/photothek.net

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Bill Gates

“It's fine to celebrate success but it is more important to heed the lessons of failure. Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can’t lose.”

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Marilyn Monroe

“Just because you fail once doesn't mean you're gonna fail at everything.”

NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images

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Steven Spielberg

“Failure is inevitable. Success is elusive.”

The LIFE Picture Collection/Gett

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Stephen King

“Optimism is a perfectly legitimate response to failure.”

Sports Illustrated/Getty Images

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Michael Jordan

“I have missed over 9,000 shots in my career. I have lost almost 300 games. On 26 occasions I have been entrusted to take the gam winning shot, and I have missed. I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

WireImage

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John Grisham

"You’ve got to get a real job and get a real career, and you’ve got to go to work. And, you’ve got to live. And, you’ve got to succeed and fail, and suffer, a little bit, or see suffering, heartache and heartbreak and all that before you really have anything to write.”

18/38

John Lennon

"You don't need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are.”

The LIFE Picture Collection/Gett

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Fred Astaire

“The higher up you go, the more mistakes you’re allowed. Right at the top, if you make enough of them, it’s considered your style.”

Heritage Images/Getty Images

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Charles Darwin

“I love fools' experiments. I am always making them.”

Getty Images

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Sidney Poitier

“It’s the way of all ancient stories. The young man must go ‘down’ in order to find the right path for going ‘up.’”

Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

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Harrison Ford

“I don't think I have something that's pronounceable as a philosophy. … When it was fashionable to say, ‘May the Force be with you,’ I always said, ‘Force yourself.'"

Getty Images

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Henry Ford

“One who fears the future, who fears failure, limits his activities. Failure is only the opportunity more intelligently to begin again. There is no disgrace in honest failure; there is disgrace in fearing to fail. What is past is useful only as it suggests ways and means for progress.”

Getty Images

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Jay Z

"I'd rather die enormous than live dormant.”

The LIFE Images Collection/Getty

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Dr. Seuss

“Out there things can happen, and frequently do, /To people as brainy and footsy as you. / And when things start to happen, don't worry, don't stew. /Just go right along, you'll start happening too!”
-Oh, the Places You’ll Go!

Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

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Akio Morita (Sony CEO)

“We tell our young managers: 'Don't be afraid to make a mistake. But make sure you don't make the same mistake twice.'”

Getty Images

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Charles Schultz

“Most of us are acquainted with losing. Very few of us ever win.”

Getty Images

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Jack London

“I do not live for what the world thinks of me, but for what I think of myself.”

CBS via Getty Images

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Igor Stravinsky

“Just as appetite comes by eating, so work brings inspiration, if inspiration is not discernible at the beginning.”

Getty Images

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Sir James Dyson (He invented a design of the vacuum cleaner)

“Punishing mistakes doesn’t lead to better solutions or faster results. It stifles invention.”

"I fail constantly. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

The LIFE Picture Collection/Gett

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Louise May Alcott

“If I can do no more, let my name stand among those who are willing to bear ridicule and reproach for the truth's sake, and so earn some right to rejoice when the victory is won.”

Monet

“I tell myself that anyone who says he has finished a canvas is terribly arrogant. Finished means complete, perfect, and I toil away without making any progress, searching, fumbling around, without achieving anything much.”

De Agostini/Getty Images

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Mozart

“A fellow of mediocre talent will remain a mediocrity, whether he travels or not; but one of superior talent (which without impiety I cannot deny that I possess) will go to seed if he always remains in the same place.”

“I pay no attention whatever to anybody's praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings.”

Boston Globe via Getty Images

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Robert Sternberg

“I study what I stink at. “

Getty Images

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Robert Goddard

"Each must remember that no one can predict to what heights of wealth, fame, or usefulness he may rise until he has honestly endeavored, and he should derive courage from the fact that all sciences have been, at some time, in the same condition as he, and that it has often proved true that the dream of yesterday is the hope of today and the reality of tomorrow.”

Getty Images

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Tom Landry

“I’ve learned that something constructive comes from every defeat.”

Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

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Soichiro Honda

"Each individual should work for himself. "

Getty Images

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Zane Grey

“To bear up under loss — to fight the bitterness of defeat and the weakness of grief — to be victor over anger — to smile when tears are close — to resist evil men and base instincts — to hate hate and to love love — to go on when it would seem good to die — to seek ever after the glory and the dream — to look up with unquenchable faith in something evermore about to be — that is what any man can do, and so be great.”

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